The story could just as easily have said, that the disciples thought they were seeing a “spirit. Why? Because they thought he might be a ghost!īut the word used there in Luke 24 is not actually “ghost” The word is “pneuma,” the same word we might otherwise translate as “spirit.” It’s the very same word. Many of us, it seems to me, have reached still another level of development towards being “spiritual but not religious.” We have become what some of us have said we wanted: to be “spiritual but not religious.” Let me explain.Īccording to the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus first appeared, his disciples were terrified. We are like ghosts! Ghosts without bodies. Sounding like we are in tunnels and echo chambers. Our meetings become like seances, and our images become like ghosts. The joke is that Zoom meetings are like a modern version of a seance! Remember the old seances? They were eerie and quasi-spiritual: “Are you there? We can hear you, but we can’t see you! Can you hear me?” “Are you there? Are you there? …We can see you but we can’t hear you! Can you hear me? …Joe? Mary? Are you there?” The joke is about those familiar, awkward, questions and concerns that seem to accompany every Zoom meeting, at least at its beginning. We’ve all heard our share of pandemic jokes in the past year, but one of my favorites has to do with video conference meetings. “Jesus himself stood among them and said to them,”Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.” Luke 24:36-37
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